A lady vanishes

A list and description of favorite "locked room" mysteries by a mystery author  includes this one:

The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White

My second favourite locked room mystery is The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White. You may not have heard of this book, or its author, but in her day Ethel was just as popular and successful as Agatha Christie. I think she is an amazing and underrated writer. A lot of people think she may have been forgotten because, like me, she was shy.

The Wheel Spins is about a girl called Iris who is returning to England by train after a somewhat underwhelming holiday. She finds herself in a carriage with a woman called Miss Froy. When Iris wakes up from a nap, Miss Froy is missing and everyone else on the train insists that she was never there in the first place!

I love this book so much, so did Alfred Hitchcock, so he turned it into a film called The Lady Vanishes. (The film is not as good as the book). The Wheel Spins was written in 1936, but it feels surprisingly contemporary when read today. If you enjoy my books I think you might enjoy this too.

The film is one of my favorites but I haven't read the book. Some time ago I downloaded it onto my Kindle. If it is better than the film I probably ought to give it a try.  The Hitchcock film, The Lady Vanishes, is available at Amazon for a very good price.

"Alice Feeney's Favorite Locked Room Mysteries," CrimeReads, August 30, 2022